114 



WEAVER'S FRITILLARY. 



PLATE XLVIII. 



MeUtoea Dla, Stephens. Jeemtn. "Westwood. 



Papilio Bia, Linn^us. Stewart. Tueton. 



Argynnis Dia, Ochsenheimer. Hubner. 



Mr. Hichai-d Weaver has taken tliis rare fly at Sutton Park, 

 near Tamwortli, and Mr. Stanley near Alderley, in Cheshire. 



Certain "Malignants" having doubted the former captures, I 

 feel constrained to rescue an honest man's character from the 

 undeserved imputation. In a letter I received from the late Dr. 

 Shirley Pahiier, of Tamworth, Warwickshire, dated so recently 

 as the 23rd. of October, 185f^, he says, "I know not whether 

 you are personally acquainted with that extraordinary man: he 

 possesses the most correct eye for the discrimination of species, 

 of any individual whom I have hitherto met with. On several 

 occasions the poor fellow has experienced rather shabby treat- 

 ment from the entomologists of London and Paris, and I have 

 had to vindicate him from charges of unblushing felsehood and 

 gross negligence, of which I know him to be utterly incapable. 

 His assertion respecting the capture of any rare insect, if made 

 by himself, may be most implicitly relied on." I formerly, 

 when at Bromsgrove school, knew Mr. Weaver personally myself, 

 ' as a most successful, because a most indefatigable collector, 

 and the opinion of such a man as the late lamented Dr. Palmer 

 he may well be contented with, should this record of it meet 

 his eye. 'Satis est equites plaudere.' 



The caterpillar feeds on the sweet-scented violet, ( Viola 

 odorata,) and there are two broods in the year. 



This species measures a little over an inch and a half in 

 the expanse of its wings. The fore wings are of a reddish 



